THE FUTURE WE WANT: POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

Zahidul A. Huque
UNFPA Representative for Turkey
Country Director for Armenia, Azerbaijan & Georgia
This presentation is made on behalf of UN Country Team, Turkey
United Nations launched a substantive and inclusive process to
define Post-2015 Development Agenda owned by all players.
The post-2015 debate is informed by inputs and ideas from a broad
base of civil society, marginalized groups, and others
previously left out of discussions on development priorities.
‘’Let us develop a new generation of sustainable
development goals to pick up where the MDGs leave
off. Let us agree on the means to achieve them.” UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon ( http://bit.ly/LobDgA)
Thematic areas
Lead UN
agencies
Inequalities
UNICEF
Health
WHO
Education
UNICEF
Growth & employment
ILO
Environmental sustainability
UNDP
Food security & nutrition
FAO
Governance
UNDP
Conflict & fragility
IOM
Population dynamics
UNFPA
• 9 Thematic meetings were organized at national level, led by UN
agencies .
• 4 regional meetings, which covered 9 cities and surrounding areas. This
was co-led by Resident Coordinator’s office and the Ministry of
Development.
• 4 Youth summits;
•
1260 stakeholders participated in consultation meetings:
556 CSO representatives
442 Youth representatives
164 academicians, and
98 governmental institutions.
59% women and 41% men.

We made special efforts to talk with the most marginalized
groups in the country, such as women in the shelters and
disabled people.

We tried to reach representatives from different parts of
Turkey in order to have a variety of voices and priorities of
different stakeholders and to better understand their
concerns.
With Resident Coordinator’s participation, 5 university meetings were
organized.
• 1300 students, 55 academicians attended.
A Post2015Turkey.org –website was developed and an online survey
during October 15 –February 15, 2013 was conducted, seeking inputs for
the Post2015 agenda. Through online survey, 1,656 people were
reached.
www.post2015turkey.org
Through snap shot of street voices, we did street interviews with more
than 20 people. Interviews were mainly conducted with young people
and women, and made into a simple short film.
‘’ In 2015, I want a world where women are not killed, murders of
women are not normalized and women have representation in
daily life and politics.‘’
-A university student, National Consultation Process Street
Interviews, Ankara
‘’May there be no worker without insurance in the post-2015
period‘’
-A taxi driver, National Consultation Process Street
Interviews, Ankara
‘’I wish that the year 2015 will be one in which eternal and lasting
peace that Kant expressed two centuries ago but remained
unachieved so far will be realized. ‘’
-A student during National Consultation Process Street
Interviews, Ankara
With UNV Post2015 national coordinator’s initiation and organization, an
Online photo sharing and networking campaign was done; campaign was
announced on social media, asking for photo contributions relating to 9
thematic areas. Photos were uploaded using the hashtag Post2015.The best
100 photos were displayed during the First Validation Meeting held in Ankara
on 7th of March.
Post-2015 First Validation
Meeting, Ankara
First Validation Meeting: March 7th 2013, Ankara)

UN Turkey organized a First Validation Meeting to share the outcomes of
the consultation process up to date;

Participated by all UN agencies, Resident Coordinator and other
stakeholders who had contributed to the consultations;

The Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality who is a member of the
High Level Panel for Post2015 consultations participated in the validation
meeting;
Emerging Themes and Priorities
Among regional meetings, there were different as well as similar themes emerging:
for instance “urban sprawl” and governance among the CSO’s and local governments
were one of the main issues emerged at each regional meeting.
In the University visits, the emerging themes and priorities were: Gender (domestic
violence and child marriage); Social inequalities and exclusion (empowerment of
poor and marginalized groups in the decision making processes); Good governance;
Sustainable human development ( economic, social and environmental dimensions,
green growth); youth and volunteerism; security and peace.
The thematic national consultation meetings showed that, each theme has its own
emerging salient features for the Turkish community.
For more details you may find issue papers of each thematic meeting by visiting
www.post2015turkey.org website.
The Consultation Process
in Turkey
Lessons Learned:
•
Diversity in participation brought deeper analysis to various issues
•
National and regional priorities both diverge and converge;
•
The most important lesson is that to take a holistic view that cuts
across all themes when identifying sustainable development
goals;
The Consultation Process
in Turkey
Key Challenges:
•
Social and gender inequalities, and discrimination on the
ground of sexual orientation, gender or disability came out
as prominent challenges;
•
Poverty of vulnerable groups, such as women, children,
unemployed youth, rural agriculture workers and disable
people is an emerging priority for 2015 development
agenda;
The Consultation Process
in Turkey
Feedback:
•
General feedback from the stakeholders has been positive, and many
feel that they have been heard and were give a platform to contribute.
•
The greatest achievement, in our opinion, has been bringing on board
everyone to discuss development issues and their perceptions of
development priorities. This has been a real eye opener.